GSH wrote:One thing I've learned over time in this industry, and partly why crunch time happens:

"The last 10% of the project takes the other 90% of the time."

Looks like you think you're just about done. Think again.

-- GSH

This couldnt be more true! I find its the last line of code that is almost impossible to write. We got alot of feedback on the game and decided it wasnt done. I think that bit of insight is the most valuable and that it is very very hard to plan for: bugs, creep, redos, etc. it never ends. At some point we just have to say "its done enough". How in the world did you guys make that call when working on BZ? to say "its done". I think that making that call must have been tough - because BZ is such a complex game. People nowadays are much less forgiving (especially on Early Acces) when it comes to buggy releases (look at what happened to Arkham Asylum for the PC - and that was a UE3 game!).

LtFEED wrote:How in the world did you guys make that call when working on BZ? to say "its done".

Real companies have limited money and time deadlines.

So, basically, when the money runs out? I think the company says "Done by X date" and then everyone pulls their hair out trying to cram as much as they can get done in the last few weeks.

its an unfortunate reality i suppose, but at least it gets stuff done! We just send the game to Steam this morning and its in the review que now, depending on the que and manpower at steam, the game should be up by this Wednesday.

The game just went up on Steam Early Access, it will be a couple months before we are in Full Release. Currently there are 3 SIngleplayer maps. Our SIngleplayer maps are Skirmish mode, with the goal to destroy the enemy base before they destroy yours. If your curious what one person can accomplish coding with sheer grit, then check out the game. I did all of the code, most of the surfacing, about half of the models, all of the SFX, all of the map assembly (on hotshots landscapes), the packaging, the Front End, the HUD in scaleform, and most of the part systems.

Anyone that already purchased a copy of the game will get a free Steam Key. Please send me an email at: bioniteorigins@gmail.com. Please include "Steam Key' in the subject line and the receipt number of your purchase (SendOwl or Desura). If you purchased the game in the Indie Royale pack through Desura (now defunct) were sorry but you will need to by another copy of the game through Steam.

Now that we are on Steam most of the hard work and toil is over. We are going to be adding more content, game elements, and eventually upgrading to a new engine (probably Cryengine, maybe UE4 if they can ever get a bug free enough version for an indie dev to use commercially).

I really appreciate all the support from the BZ community during our time in the trenches. I have been working out of a dugout for 6 years during the games development. I also want to thank the many trolls that have posted their extreme hate, for me that is just motivation to prove them wrong!

As a trailer, the things this lacks most are sound and pace. Sound is the most obvious but pacing is the most damaging - in games in general long shots are typically best avoided; typically you only want shots to focus on the subject for long enough for the player to understand what it is. The shot of the Bayonet at the start is a perfect example; you want it to be just long enough for the player to realise this is their cockpit, and to read the text on-screen. Any more than that is wasted time. The only other things I noticed were that the movement of the Driller is a little bit jerky (I get that the vertical element is intended to be from the drill, but it just looks odd) and that the text animation doesn't quite seem to fit, almost like it's a bit too "fun" for a game that, at least last I heard, is supposed to be a serious atmosphere. That aside the quality of art assets has definitely improved and your control of the camera, which I presume is through matinee, is much stronger than the trailer where the script got butchered a few years back.

I don't know if this will be part of the game or not as an introduction to the objectives or something, but I'll provide critique for that just in case. If it is, it's way too long. In this case each shot needs to be long enough for the player to read the text and be able to recognise the subject if they saw it again. Any longer than that is superfluous and starts eating into the player's patience and attention span, because more time watching an intro clip is less time actually playing. For an intro clip you'd want something that's thirty seconds long at the absolute most unless you're providing narrative content, and ideally you'd have the whole thing pre-rendered so you can play it while the level loads in the background. Text animation is a bit more important here too; if you must animate it then a fade, fade/slide or typewriter animation would be best. That said you can disregard this entire paragraph if you're not planning to use a video clip to give the player their objectives.